UK house prices: First-time home buyers priced out of market July 2, 2015 Annual house price growth has slowed to a two-year low, according to a major mortgage provider. But months of fast growth has left first-time buyers struggling to put deposits together, despite government programmes to help them. House prices were 3.3 per cent higher in June than in the same month last year, Nationwide said. It [...]
London planning permission approvals for new houses soar July 2, 2015 A surge in planning approvals for new houses in London has lifted the prospects for building. London boroughs granted planning permission to 11,870 homes during the first three months of the year, estate agent Stirling Ackroyd said today. If that rate continued, 47,460 homes would be given planning permission this year. [...]
China in the throes of investment fever: Ordinary Chinese gripped by buzz of stock market speculation July 2, 2015 Three years ago China was in the grip of a walnut investing bubble. In an episode akin to 17th century tulip mania, wealthy Chinese paid up to £3,000 (¥30,000) for a pair of walnuts which cost £36 (¥350) several years prior. In the belief that rolling a nut in the palm of the hand [...]
Everybody loves Wolfgang Schäuble: The German finance minister is more popular than ever with the general public July 2, 2015 While Yanis Varoufakis is threatening to quit his job if the Greeks accept creditors' proposals for a bailout deal in Sunday's referendum, one Eurozone finance minister is building stronger ties than ever with his country. Read more: Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis: "We will not accept a one per cent primary budget surplus" Today, [...]
The UK’s biotech drain: This is why London’s most successful startups are heading to New York July 2, 2015 There's a mass migration taking place across the Atlantic right now. Each year, many of the UK's best biotech firms are choosing to leave and head to New York, where they can benefit from wealthy investors throwing their money at Nasdaq. Read more: Federal Reserve sees social media and biotech valuations as "substantially stretched" [...]
IMF: Another Greek bailout will cost €52bn July 2, 2015 Bailing out Greece for another three years will cost €52bn, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said today, as Greeks prepared to vote on reform proposals by the country's creditors. A new debt sustainability analysts by the IMF showed interest payments will cost €4.9bn over the next 12 months, rising to €17.2bn over the next three [...]
Airports Commission report: Heathrow runway expansion by 2025 will be too little, too late for London’s tech sector July 2, 2015 It cannot be denied that the announcement of Heathrow’s runway expansion is a step in the right direction for the capital’s business community. According to Andrew Macmillan, operations director at Heathrow Airport, direct air connections between airports lead to a twentyfold increase in trade between destinations. Equally for Declan Collier, chief executive of [...]
US unemployment falls to 5.3 per cent as the economy comes closer to full employment July 2, 2015 The US created 223,000 jobs in June, with the unemployment rate falling to 5.3 per cent, down from a gain of 254,000 new roles in May. The unemployment rate fell further from 5.5 per cent in May, pushing it closer to the Federal Reserve’s estimate of the longer-run 5-5.2 per cent. This compares to a [...]
Jeroen Dijsselbloem: There will be no negotiations if Greece votes no in the referendum July 2, 2015 Greece's creditors will not negotiate with its leaders if voters reject their bailout terms in a referendum to be held on Sunday, Eurogroup president and Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem has warned. At a parliamentary committee, Dijsselbloem called the idea there could be further talks after a "no" vote an "illusion" which must be "swept [...]
Fracking could cut house prices by up to seven per cent July 2, 2015 Fracking could cut nearby house prices by up to seven per cent and increase the cost of insuring a home, according to previously redacted sections of a government report released yesterday. The Shale Gas Rural Economy Impacts by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) looked at the impact of fracking operations on [...]